Decrease Your Vision?
“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody” (1 Thess. 4:11–12).
The apostle Paul wrote these words to a small community of converts in Thessalonica. One might think he’d advise them to get out there and do big things so they could win a hearing for the Good News. But that’s the opposite of what he counsels.
Like the Thessalonians, we might need to decrease our vision, too, remembering that popularity is overrated and that life in the public eye is no carnival. When we think of ambitions, we think of big dreams. But sometimes small is beautiful.
The word “quiet” here is not the word for the absence of talking. It has the sense of restfulness, of being undisturbed or settled. Paul is not advising that they be less exuberant; he wants them to be less frantic.
The person who’s always swamped burdens others. You know the type, huh? When all the commitments prove too much, others have to drop what they’re doing and come to the rescue. Or listen to the constant litany of complaints. Not good. It’s better to do our own work and bite what we can actually chew.
Being at peace in our demeanor and trimming our schedules to include only what’s manageable demonstrates love for others. In carrying our own weight we keep our loved ones from stressing over us.
To “not be dependent” differs from being like an island. We do need to be interconnected—Paul emphasizes that elsewhere. We need each other, and we need to help each other. He’s not talking here about someone who loses a job and can’t help being in need. He’s talking to the person who has a choice about carrying his or her own weight.
The context of this verse is brotherly-sisterly love. Bottom line: When we embrace a quiet life of hard work, we might think nobody notices, but people notice and we gain their R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Some questions to ask ourselves include the following:
. What are my ambitions? Are they healthy? Reasonable?
. Am I seeking popularity and others’ respect over fulfilling well all I’ve committed to do?
. Am I keeping my nose in my own business?
. Am I burdening others emotionally, financially and in time commitments when it’s within my power to provide for myself?